Work with layers

- [Voiceover] I've created a duplicate photo right here,our Tonality Layers Edit photo.And we're gonna work on this one,and then we'll leave this one aloneso that we can see the before and after evenwhile looking in our library.So I'm gonna double click on this.I'm gonna hit the Return key to go to Edit.I'm gonna go down to Extensions.And we'll pick Tonality.Here we are in Tonality, and we havea number of presets that we canchoose from as our starting point.I'm gonna go ahead and start with HDR.

I like some of these presets here in HDR.And I particularly like this one right here.Now, I think this is an interesting effect.I don't want the effect on the whole photo however.I just want it on the train itself.So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to createa layer and mask out the effectfrom the surrounding area here.And then just have it applied to the train.It's pretty easy to do.I'm gonna go ahead and click on Plus, right here.

And I'm gonna use my brush and you see thatwe get a nice, big brush to start with.I don't want it quite that big.So the say I control the size of the brushis with the Left and Right Brackets on the keyboard.I'm gonna use the Left Bracket to reduce the size.And if I hold down the Shift key,I can use the Left Bracket to lessenthe softness, or the feathering,or I could use the Right Bracket,while holding the Shift keyto increase the feathering.I like it like that, in terms of feathering.

And we'll make the brush size like that.Now I'm gonna start painting.And when I start painting what am I painting?Well, I'm actually creating the mask.And that's what you do here.Whenever you go okay, I'm painting now,what am I painting?I'm painting the mask.And I'll give you a better visual on that.I'll go over here to mask.Click on that, and we can seethe actual mask that we're working with.So, just paint.

I'm gonna try to go quickly here.Because, you know, there's no funlike watching some guy create a mask. (laugh)On a training video, right.Good times, right? (laugh)All right.I'm gonna use the Left Bracket,I'm gonna make this a little smaller.We'll get just a hair closer,and then I'll start applying effects.So, go here.Come down, just get right in there like that.Come along.Get a little bit of this right here.

Little bit back here.Come around the back of the train.And then I'll just come across the top.So, I'm just painting on a track pad right now.If you use the tablet, you could befar more accurate.There we go.And just get this.Now, I'm using the brush to paint the mask.I can use the Erase Toolto clean up the mask,as needed.

Right back there.You see.Now, we'll go back to the brush.I'll get this little guy right here in front.And we'll start applying effects.Excellent, all right.Good enough for now.Well, let's get this little corner right down here.It's easy.Now, I'm gonna turn off the mask.With the Eye I can controlif the mask is visible or not.Again, very much like Photoshop.So we have the train with the HDR effect.And we have this area here, the background,with it removed.

Now what I wanna do is create some separationbetween my main subject, the train,and the background.'Cause I think they're competing a little too much.I have this layer selected, you can tell.'Cause it has the yellow box around it.So let's play with the Exposure a bit,and create some separation.It's only affectingthe mask area.Isn't that nice?And I canup the contrast just a bit.

And I could play with Highlights, Shadows,Clarity, all of these tools,that I can applyto this mask.And if I wanted, I could actually evencreate another layer by hitting the Plus symbol like that.Now I can turn off the visibility of this maskby just clicking on the Eye as I did before.So I'm pretty close here.I sort of like what I've done.I think the train now stands out a bit too much.I would like to make an adjustment there.

So I'm gonna come down to this layer,and I'm just gonna back it off a bit.Fade it, just a bit.Somewhere like that.Now let's turn on the other mask.Now that is more in alignmentwith what I was thinking.I have my before and after.I can do compare.Side by side.And if I wanted, I can gobackwards in time.

And forwards in time.Here we are.Just like that.I'm pretty happy with this.So I'm gonna go backto my Hand Tool.And the reason why I'm turning off the brush isI don't wanna accidentally make a change.And now I'm going to save my changes.Here we are back in the Editing Interface of Photos.I'm gonna press the M key,and you can see that there's our original image.

And we'll let go of the M key.An there is our altered image.And if I wanted to I could click on Revert To Original.I'm not going to do that,'cause sorta like what we did here.So I'm gonna click Done.And then we'll go back.And there we go.So we'll have them both in here.So that's a look atthe power of layers.I really like it, because again,a lot of times I'm looking not only toapply an effect, but then controlhow the background and foreground,or my main subject, interact with one another.

And layers makes that very easy.

Resume Transcript Auto-Scroll

Author

Released

7/29/2016

Included with Mac OS X, Photos is a well-rounded application for managing, enhancing, and sharing photos. But there's room to grow, and that's where editing extensions come in. These software add-ons plug right in to Photos for Mac OS X and add new capabilities, from special color effects to sophisticated retouching.

In this course, photographer, author, and educator Derrick Story demonstrates his favorite editing extensions for performing local adjustments. These tools round out what already exists in Photos, providing the photographer with a complete image editing toolbox. Step-by-step, he selects an image from the library, explains how he wants to change it, and then chooses the appropriate editing extension to complete the job.